There's a store behind the poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, a story you may not have heard before. The charge itself was a very small part of the Crimean War, which was an attempt by England and France to keep Russia from expanding into Turkey in the 1850's. The early Crimean War effort was headed up by Lord Raglan, who, from everything I've been able to discern was not a terribly good leader. In the Battle of Balaclava, shortly after landing near Sevastopol, Lord Raglan ordered his cavalry to stop the Russians from making away with some guns they had captured from the allies. But his instructions were vague and the cavalry failed to act quickly. Then he sent more commands, this time by the hand of one, Louis Nolan. Nolan gave the wrong information to the Light Brigade, either to prove a point about how great cavalry was, or completely by accident. We can't know because he died almost immediately. Shortly thereafter many of the men of the Light Brigade would meet the same fate.